Here are some very important and wise words about puppies that we strongly believe in:
NEW OWNERS MUST:
Commit to attending a group puppy kindergarten class followed by at least one basic obedience class in a group situation before the puppy reaches the age of 6 months.
Raise their puppy in the home as a family member using crate training for housebreaking.
Have a safe, fenced outdoor area for their new puppy.
Read material provided about puppy rearing, housebreaking, training, canine behavior, and the effects of early spay/neuter. The article at this link, http://www.caninesports.com/SpayNeuter.html, written by Chris Zink, DVM, and the director of the Department of Molecular and Comparative Pathobiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, provides important information about when - and when not - to spay or neuter your dog.
Spay or neuter their dog. New owners will be provided with information about the effects of early spay/neuter and share it with their veterinarians in order to make an informed decision regarding when to spay/neuter their dog.
Understand that our goldens are not couch potatoes. They are active athletic sporting dogs that must have training, socialization, a sensible exercise program, and be kept at an appropriate body weight for their lifetime.
Provide the love and attention that a Golden is worthy of for his/her lifetime, and if this is not possible, to return the dog to us for placement in a new home.
NAMING PUPPIES:
The following example comes from Lottie's current litter of puppies, the "Heavenly" litter:
You can “call” your pup anything you want, and the common name you call your pup every day is usually referred to as his/her “call name”. For the AKC registration, which is required, the puppies will all also have a full registered name, which has two parts to it. The kennel name is the first part. So all puppies in the litter will have “Sirius-ly” as the first word in their full registered name.
The rest of the registered name is up to you, as long as it relates to the theme of the litter. The litter theme is “heavenly”. The theme comes from the fact that Sirius is known as the dog star. Often folks choose to select a call name that relates in some way to the registered name. Lottie is your puppy’s mother’s call name – her full registered name is “Rhapsody Whole Lotta Love” – Rhapsody is the kennel name, and her call name “Lottie” is a modification of “Lotta”. As another example, our Foxxy (her call name) is Lottie’s aunt. Foxxy’s full registered name is “Winterset Whole Lotta Woman”. She came from a litter from the Winterset kennel with the theme of Austin Powers movies. So Foxxy gets her name from the Beyonce role in the movie, in which she would introduce herself as “Foxxy Cleopatra, whole lotta woman!”
We have done the easy part by giving you “Sirius-ly” as the kennel name and the theme of “heavenly”. Now you have to come up with a name to go with that. Be creative.
Note that AKC limits names to characters in the English Language, with no more than 36 characters in total. You can go up to 50 characters for an extra charge. Certain punctuation marks are okay (“-“ and the apostrophe, for example). Numbers must be spelled out, so “one” is okay but”1” is not. Note that each space is also considered a character. You can read the rules, as well as test your name, by going to the AKC website here:
https://www.akc.org/reg/namingofdog.cfm.
Here are some examples of what you could do:
Boys:
- “Sirius-ly It’s a Hunter’s Moon” (call name “Hunter”)
- “Sirius-ly Once in a Blue Moon” ( call name “Blue”)
Girls:
- “Sirius-ly She’s a Star” (call name “Star”)
- “Sirius-ly She’s a Super Nova” (call name “Nova”)
Anything that has to do with heavens (planet, asteroids,comets) is fair game. Sometimes we have had a call name first and then we had to go back and figure out a registered name to go with it.
Please note that there are actual registered kennel names, and there are also kennel names that are in wide usage but that are not registered. People are very possessive about their kennels even if they are not registered. Breeders get upset when they find that the name of their kennel has been used for a dog not of their breeding. I may know if someone in the golden community has used your preferred name for their kennel name, so please check with me about names so that you don’t inadvertently select a known kennel name.
